+3 Interview: Murder, She Didn’t Write: The Improvised Murder Mystery

“We frequently outnumbered the audience but to be honest we were just happy to be performing.”

WHO: Lizzy Skrzypiec, Director/performer

WHAT:“A classic murder mystery is created on the spot in this ingenious and hilarious show from Bristol Improv Theatre’s resident company. Miss Crimson poisoned in the parlour? Mr Gold exploded by cannon in Sainsbury’s? You decide! But will you guess whodunnit? And for your Sunday night entertainment, don’t forget our additional late night shows!”

This is Murder, She Didn’t Write‘s fifth time at the fringe and it’ll be my eighth/ nineth time as a performer. I started off with a small part-improv-part-sketch group putting on a free show that was on at about 1pm in a pub far beyond the Meadows. We frequently outnumbered the audience but to be honest we were just happy to be performing. This year we have moved to the Pleasance and I couldn’t be more excited.

Tell us about your show.

Murder, She Didn’t Write is an improvised murder mystery where the cast make up a bespoke play based on audience suggestions, but it doesn’t stop there, one member of the audience decides who they want to be the victim and murderer and then it’s up to the rest of the audience to guess whodunnit. We came up with the format about five/six years ago and have been tweaking it, changing it ever since to maximize our creative freedom and the audience’s enjoyment.

When I say we, I mean Degrees of Error – a group of improvisers based at the Bristol Improv Theatre. Many of us used to perform with Bristol University’s Improv Society and the group formed with university graduates who still wanted to perform improv. However, since then our group has grown and we now have members from more theatrical backgrounds with proper acting chops! It’s lead to a truly gorgeous group of talented improvisers I’m proud to be a part of.

I am the director of the show, which is an odd thing to imagine in a play without a script. But it’s my job to make sure we are all in the same page tonally, visually etc and to see how we can continue to make the show better. We tour during the year to various theatres and festivals and we are also developing completely new shows that we premier at the BIT.

What should your audience see at the festivals after they’ve seen your show?

We heartily recommend checking out some other improv shows like Showstoppers, Austentatious, And Now For Something Completely Improvised, Happily Never After, Scribble and This Is Soap. They are a hoard of varied and delightful shows by a hoard of incredibly talented improvisers.

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